No Flame, No Gain
by Raiku.Nishimura
Summary: Maria never thought that not finishing one anime would be her biggest regret in life. Now that her world's seamlessly merged with KHR's, she's stuck teaching at Nanimori High and trying to figure out why she's the only person who remembers "The Anime That Never Existed" AND avoiding her students' bullet-ridden shenanigans. Dammit! She should have taken that job in Korea instead!


This was just an idea rattling around in my head that I decided to write out.

If you guys like it, I'll continue :)

 **OH AND IF YOU ALREADY READ THIS STORY I JUST FIXED SOME PRETTY EMBARRASING MISTAKES:**

 **Yamamoto is now happily sporting his correct name (thanks xthedarksunx) and I changed my OC's first name so that we don't have 2 Aria's running around KHR (Thanks mysterious guest reviewer and Yukimeki). Also, the story is titled "No Flame, No Gain" now because I just realized that I've been saying the idiom wrong this entire time. Ehe, aren't I the little genius. Well, better late than never I guess...**

 **Now onto the actual story!**

* * *

 **~ No Flame, No gain ~**

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

* * *

Standing there with a dozen eyes boring into her soul almost made her loose her nerve.

Why did she decide to do this again? I mean really what was so great about Japan anyway?

And teaching? Was she really cut out to be a teacher when she barely learned how to hold basic conversation after a full 23 years of trying?

But she pushed those thoughts out of her head in a second, and focused on her new colleagues. She drew herself up to full height, which was rather impressive with her current company, and made her carefully articulated self-introduction was with a practiced bow.

"Wow! You're Japanese is so good, Miss Whitaker" said Watanabe-sensei in highly accented English.

"Thank you," She said with a smile before switching to Japanese and saying "And please speak to me in Japanese so that I can practice a bit; I would hate to make an embarrassing mistake in front of the students."

Everyone gave an appropriate light chuckle of understanding, so it seems like she said that sentence correctly.

Feeling a little better, she carefully socialized with her co-workers as they walked towards the gymnasium, where they would be having the entrance ceremony.

The otaku in her squealed at the prospect while the rest of her felt like fainting at the idea of getting up on stage in front of everyone. She had no doubt she would be the center of attention from the moment she came into view, being the only foreign teacher this school had ever seen, so she had dressed meticulously for this moment: A collared white shirt, buttoned to the top and a high waisted skirt that past he knees to conform to Japanese culture's modesty. Factoring in her posture, body language and outfit she was able to give off a quiet confidence quite naturally, and sitting in front of those kids much easier knowing that.

That's right, she was ready for this; She had prepared and studied and practiced too much for this too fail! _Shana–_ Wait, No! She most certainly did not start to quote Haruno Sakura right there. NO. Just, no.

No anime in front of the students or teachers! If she thought being an otaku was shunned back home, being labeled as one in Japan was even worse. She would be _that_ American nerd girl, that Japanophile (a horrendous word, in her opinion, that was obviously meant to imply a sort of shameful perversion) so NO ANIME.

And no Sakura for that matter, what was she even doing quoting that love-struck, thick-headed kunoichi?

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she focused on her surroundings again. She had met up with everyone in the entrance hall because the Watanabe-sensei had just finished giving her a brief tour of the facilities, but now they were already out of the building and halfway to the gym. _Honestly, this school was so small it could fit in a teacup,_ she thought to herself. Well, small compared to her old high school of over 4,000 students, so maybe her perspective was a little skewed.

"So, _Whitaka_ -sensei," an middle aged woman –Takahime, maybe? There had been a lot of new faces today– "Where in America did you come from?"

"I was born and raised in San Francisco," She said, ignoring the way Takahime-sensei butchered her name. An American name would always be a problem here, and she didn't want to make people uncomfortable when saying it by drawing attention to it.

"Oh? I visited San Francisco a few years ago!" A slightly younger teacher (Kimura-sensei, Math and homeroom teacher, her brain supplied) interjected.

"Really? Did you like it?" She said, turning towards him.

"Yes, very much," He said, fidgeting slightly nervously.

They had reached the doors to the gymnasium now and the Principle held open the door for her and all the other teachers.

She beamed, trying to put Kimura-sensei at ease while also trying to focus on him instead of the sea of heads she could see in front of her, and said "I'm very glad to hear that."

It didn't seem to work, as now he flushed pink, muttered something she couldn't quite understand and slinked off to his seat. She followed suit and took her seat as quickly as possible without drawing unnecessary attention to herself.

It was in vain though, because not only could she feel the weight of the children's stares, she had clearly heard the students whispering words like "foreign" and "American" while the Principle had been walking towards the podium. While the students quieted for his speech, no one was being subtle by staring at _right at her._

Sweet moses' third nipple on a cracker, this awkward.

She silently sang a little mantra to keep herself calm.

 _Keep your breath steady, in and out_

 _Keep your back strait, you are proud_

 _Keep your ears open, ready to act_

 _Keep your mind sharp, prepared to attack_

As always it worked wonders on her nerves and she was able to make it through the ceremony by staring at whoever was speaking or resting her eyes above the heads of the students.

* * *

 _No, no, no! Not another one!_

Tsuna wanted to cry at the unfairness of it all.

Of course there would be a mysterious foreigner for the first time in school history when he came to Nanimori High. Of course!

She walked onto the stage, saying something to the other teachers and flashing a brief but heart stopping smile that made every male within sight blush. She obviously had that "mafia seduction" that Reborn was always going on about, with that tiny waist accentuated by her high skirt, dark hair falling past her chin in perfect waves and a strand tickling her full lips…

Wait, what he _thinking_?!

It doesn't matter if she's pretty! She might be here to kill him! No, if he'd learned anything from middle school it was that it's not a question of _if_ , it's a question of _when_.

 _I have to be prepared! I can't let my guard down around her_ , he thought, clenching his fists and staring daggers at her poised form.

* * *

By the end of the ceremony, Tsuna was confused.

He frowned as he walked down the hallway flanked by Gokudera and Yamamoto, who were arguing about who got ("the honor" according the Gokudera) to sit next to him.

The woman hadn't even looked for him once! She had just listened to the teacher and briefly nodded to the student body with a smile when the principal mentioned their new assistant English teacher, and even then she had just skimmed briefly over the audience and over him without pausing even slightly.

Usually when the mafia came for him, they made it abundantly clear they were after him with creepy smiles and various weapons poking out from under their clothes…

"What are you doing, spacing out like that, Baka-Tsuna?" A voice said right next to his ear.

He barely kept his mouth shut, an improvement he was quite proud of, but jumped across the hallway at the sound of Reborn's voice.

"Reborn! What are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on my student, Baka."

Right, Reborn was here to… Wait! Maybe he knew about the woman!

"Reborn, do you know who is that new English teacher?"

Gokudera answered instead, "She's an American named Maria Whitaker. The school got the town newspaper to do a whole article about her since she went to Oxford or something."

"That's right, Gokudera-kun. Baka-Tsuna, a mafia boss should pay attention to the news."

"But is she here for me? I mean, is she from a family?"

Gokudera growled and started to pull out his firecrakers, "I won't let her hurt you, Ju– "

"Wait! Not here, Gokudera!"

Tsuna grappled with Gokudera, trying to force his explosive-filled hands back into his pockets.

"Aha, is she part of the mafia game? That's weird," Yamamoto laughed out.

"It's not "weird", baseball freak! She's trying to hurt Juudaime!"

Yamamoto laughed, raising his hands in surrender and said, "That's not what I meant. It's just weird that she's not from Italy, you know?"

"Yamamoto's right, Baka-Tsuna, and she's not mafia," Reborn cut in.

Tsuna and Gokudera stopped and everyone turned towards Reborn again.

"There are no families in California, none big enough to take on the Vongola. You should know this Baka-Tsuna," Reborn said ominously.

"How was I supposed to know she was from California?" Tsuna cried, trying to save himself.

"Oh, now that I think about it I think they said something like that in the article," Gokudera said thoughtfully.

Tsuna turned his horror filled eyes to Gokudera, who finally understood what he had done.

"Or not! You couldn't have known something like that, Boss!"

But it was too late, and Tsuna knew he was in for a horrible training after school.

At least my _new_ teacher wasn't going to try and kill me too, he thought.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

So yeah, had to get that out and onto a page, but if you like, I'll continue.

 **Oh and I haven't abandoned my other stories! Just had some life events that I have had trouble adjusting to but updates will happen, I swear!**

Reviews make my day :)


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